Surrender of Capacity (SoC)

SoC is a CMP measure and allows shippers to surrender their capacity to the TSO. Capacity surrendered by shippers will only be sold after the TSO has sold his own available capacity.

Shippers who have contracted capacity via an auction will not see a difference between surrendered capacity or regular offered capacity. Applying the CMP rules on surrendered bundled capacity, contracts can result in an unbundling of the originally bundled contracted capacity. If for instance a shipper surrenders bundled capacity where we as GTS still have capacity available but the NNO does not, then we will sell our own capacity while the NNO sells the surrendered capacity. This results in (partial) unbundling of a bundled capacity contract.

SoC is only allowed on contracted capacity without any restrictions. A SoC is not possible in case any additional conditions apply (e.g. capacity under construction contracted under an Open Season). A shipper can surrender capacity in case the shipper has the capacity rights as well as the usage rights.

SoC is possible on annually, quarterly and monthly auctions with a firm forward flow. SoC is possible as well on firm backhaul capacity in the monthly auction. Please note that the quarterly auction takes all quarters only once a year. SoC is not applicable on interruptible capacity and/or day ahead auctions.

Submitting a SoC is tied to a deadline. For the yearly, quarterly and monthly auction the SoC request has to be processed successfully at least 10 business days before the publication of the auction on the PRISMA platform. Please find the deadlines for submission in the overview on our website.

A flat profile is required for each SoC request. In order to fulfill a ‘profiled’ SoC request, the shipper must enter a SOC request for each ‘range’ during an overlapping period. The SoC request is free of charge.

Each SoC request is linked to a new created SoC timestamp. Offered SoC capacity at the auction will be sold in sequence of the oldest SoC timestamp(s) per network point.

When a shipper offers capacity via a SoC request for a future auction, it is not possible anymore to use this offered capacity on the secondary market (e.g. transfers and diversions). This is not possible until the auction is finished.

The surrendering shipper remains the capacity owner as long as his surrendered capacity is not re-sold. If the surrendered capacity can not be re-sold, the shipper regains full control of his capacity again. A surrender can also be partially successful, meaning that only part of the surrendered capacity is re-sold. After the auction, the surrendering shipper is informed by GTS on the status of his SoC request.

In case the surrendered capacity has successfully been re-sold to a new shipper, the shipper who sold its capacity is relieved from its payment obligation.